THE GIRL'S OWNPAPER
Vol. XX.—No. 996.]
[Price One Penny.
JANUARY 28, 1899.
[Transcriber's Note: This Table of Contents was not present in the original.]
“OUR HERO.”
IN THE TWILIGHT SIDE BY SIDE.
ABOUT PEGGY SAVILLE.
HOUSEHOLD HINTS.
FROCKS FOR TO-MORROW.
GIRLS AS I HAVE KNOWN THEM.
VARIETIES.
OUR LILY GARDEN.
OUR PUZZLE POEM REPORT: AN IDEAL GARDEN.
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
OUR PUZZLE POEMS.
OUR SUPPLEMENT STORY COMPETITION.
OUR NEXT STORY COMPETITION.
“OUR HERO.”
A TALE OF THE FRANCO-ENGLISHWAR NINETY YEARS AGO.
By AGNES GIBERNE, Author of “Sun, Moonand Stars,” “The Girl at the Dower House,” etc.
“‘POOR FELLOW! HE DOES LOOK DONE!’” (See p. 262.)
All rights reserved.]
CHAPTER XVIII.
ROY’S IMPRUDENCE.
The letter from Mrs. Fairbank toColonel Baron, which Roy undertook toread aloud to Denham, was lengthy andverbose. Some extracts may be givenfrom it, the remainder being, in old-fashionedphrase, “left to the reader’simagination.”
It may be remarked here thatmuch had happened during thelast four years in European history,since the Barons had lefttheir own country. Notable{274}among famous events was the Battle ofTrafalgar in 1805, which crippled forhalf a century to come the naval powerof France.
For three years at least previous tothat date, England had been kept ontenterhooks of expectation, incessantlydreading a French invasion. Napoleonhad talked largely of such an invasion,and had made preparations for it on nomean scale. England also had madeready for it, had feared it, had laughedat it. And at the last, partly throughContinental complications, causingNapoleon to withdraw most of the greatmilitary force which had long sat atBoulogne, waiting for a safe chance ofcrossing the Channel, but much morethrough the magnificent and crushi